Hydrogen refueling station compression and storage optimization with tube-trailer deliveries

Abstract

Compression Storage Fuel cell electric vehicles a b s t r a c t Hydrogen refueling stations require high capital investment, with compression and storage comprising more than half of the installed cost of refueling equipment. Refueling station configurations and operation strategies can reduce capital investment while improving equipment utilization. Argonne National Laboratory developed a refueling model to evaluate the impact of various refueling compression and storage configurations and tube trailer operating strategies on the cost of hydrogen refueling. The modeling results revealed that a number of strategies can be employed to reduce fueling costs. Proper sizing of the high-pressure buffer storage reduces the compression requirement considerably, thus reducing refueling costs. Employing a tube trailer to initially fill the vehicle's tank also reduces the compression and storage requirements, further reducing refueling costs.Reducing the cut-off pressure of the tube trailer for initial vehicle fills can also significantly reduce the refueling costs. Finally, increasing the trailer's return pressure can cut refueling costs, especially for delivery distances less than 100 km, and in early markets, when refueling stations will be grossly underutilized.

Lowering Energy Spending Together With Compression, Storage, and Transportation Costs for Hydrogen Distribution in the Early Market

“…In fact this results from a cost optimization: compressors are expensive and it is cheaper having a small compressor working nearly all day long to fill buffers than a large compressor with the possibility to fill directly the tank within a few minutes. Bulk storage is considered as a basic feature of an HRS: when connected to a hydrogen pipe line (a 17.2 MPa bulk storage is considered in [6]), when supplied by trucked trailers [8], or with onsite production (between 20 and 35 MPa in [7]). The buffer storage is usually made of several vessels which can be isolated and connected successively to the vehicle tank.…”

“…This chapter is connected with current or in the near future implementations, in the emerging market of hydrogen energy, especially in France. Thus it only considers small HRSs (from 20 to 200 kg/day) whereas most other papers are concerned with long term perspectives for a developed hydrogen market with large HRSs: 850, 1000 and 1330 kg/day in [6], 250 kg/day in [8]… The cost generated here are for current implementations: they are issued from commercial consultations during 2015 and 2016 and no reduction factor has been applied for mass production which will undoubtedly occur in the next decade, especially for composite pressure bottles, but also for compressors.…”

“…But the compressors considered for hydrogen distribution in general and specifically in the present study are really smaller. [6], [7] and [8] follow this recommendation and use isentropic efficiency. [7] uses a formula from chemical processes [14] for the variation of isentropic efficiency with the pressure ratio and assumes that all efficiency losses contribute to increase hydrogen enthalpy (no external losses), which again is acceptable for large non cooled compressors.…”

“…[7] uses a formula from chemical processes [14] for the variation of isentropic efficiency with the pressure ratio and assumes that all efficiency losses contribute to increase hydrogen enthalpy (no external losses), which again is acceptable for large non cooled compressors. [7] and [8] using a 65% isentropic efficiency. [6] underlignes the lack of experimental data and a large dispersion, by a factor of 10, of the few compressor consumption data reported in [9] for hydrogen distribution, while DOE estimates in 2013 consumptions from 2 to 4 kWh/kgH2 for 35 MPa refueling with an efficiency about 65% and targets 80% in 2020.…”

A Distance-Adaptive Refueling Recommendation Algorithm for Self-Driving Travel

“…Therefore, the number of gas stations, the relative positions of the vehicle and gas stations, and the relative distance variables are the key conditions for solving the refueling problem in this study. In particular, we use three distance variables, two distance differences, and two counters of gas stations along the route [32]. Among them, the three key distance variables are the maximum driving distance of the vehicle (D to_maxdriving ), the route length (D route ), and the distance from the starting point to a given gas station (D to_node ); all of the distances used in this study are curve distances obtained by driving from the starting point (P start ) along the traveling route.…”